Thursday

Apr 9, 2015 at 10:42 PM

The lawyers for a 13-year-old girl accused of bullying a classmate to the point of suicide have filed a federal lawsuit against Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, as well as the Sheriff's Office and a detective, citing civil rights violations in her arrest and the publicity surrounding it.

LAKELAND | The lawyers for a 13-year-old girl accused of bullying a classmate to the point of suicide have filed a federal lawsuit against Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, as well as the Sheriff's Office and a detective, citing civil rights violations in her arrest and the publicity surrounding it.The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Tampa, stems from the September 2013 arrest of Katelyn Roman on a charge of aggravated stalking in the death of Rebecca Sedwick. Katelyn was one of the two girls who was arrested amid intense attention from national media in connection with Rebecca's suicide. The charge against Katelyn was dropped a month after her arrest.Rebecca was a 12-year-old Lakeland girl who fell to her death from an abandoned cement silo on Sept. 9, 2013. As sheriff's detectives were investigating the suicide, they found what they thought was enough evidence to arrest former friends and Crystal Lake Middle School classmates Roman and Guadalupe Shaw, who was 14 years old at the time, accusing them of bullying and cyberbullying Sedwick before her death. Charges also were dropped against Guadalupe.The lawsuit accuses Judd of false arrest, malicious prosecution, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and a violation of civil rights."Judd's conduct was outrageous, beyond all bounds of decency, atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit wants Judd to pay Katelyn and her mother $60,000 for pain and suffering. The lawsuit also asks for a jury to determine damages Judd would have to pay the Roman family for violating the girl's civil rights, Howard Marks, one of the two Orlando-area lawyers representing Katelyn and her mother, Roseanne Gill, said Thursday. Because this is a federal civil rights lawsuit, it does not fall within the state's $300,000 lawsuit cap, Marks said.The lawsuit asks for $15,000 from the Sheriff's Office and $30,000 from Detective Jonathan McKinney.The lawsuit accuses the Sheriff's Office of false arrest, invasion of privacy and defamation. McKinney, who investigated and wrote Katelyn's affidavit, is accused of false arrest, malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

'FRIVOLOUS LAWSUIT'But Judd isn't buying any of it."It's a frivolous lawsuit," Judd said. "It's not the first one we've seen; it won't be the last one we've see."In an interview Thursday evening, Judd said he would not discuss the specifics of the lawsuit while it is in litigation.The next step in the lawsuit is for Judd, McKinney and the Sheriff's Office to respond within 20 days, after which a U.S. District Court judge will set a timeline for the case, Marks said.Marks said it usually takes about 18 months before a case like this goes to trial.He said the lawsuit blames Judd as an individual instead of just the Sheriff's Office because of how close he was to the investigation."In this particular case, we alleged Sheriff Grady was intimately involved in our plaintiff being arrested," Marks said. "... He's the one who made the ultimate choice on this."He said Judd's several news conferences and multiple TV appearances spurred the media attention."This thing went viral, it went all over the world," Marks said. "It just went absolutely crazy."Marks said Judd was trying to cash in on a national issue to benefit his own fame."Cyberbulling was a hot topic through the United States, and it's our belief ... that Sheriff Grady Judd wanted to get national attention on this and look like he was doing something about this and ... wound up destroying the lives of those who are innocent," he said."That's pretty devastating on a 12-year-old," Marks said. "There's no excuse, from what we believe, for what occurred."The lawsuit criticizes the way the Sheriff's Office and Judd handled looking into the case."This investigation began more as a publicity stunt than an actual law enforcement activity so that Judd could publicize this attempt to stamp out 'cyber bullies,'?" the lawsuit stated.But Judd said people should not let a lawsuit that "has no merit" cloud their vision."We will always, always work to defend victims of bullying, and the true victim in this episode is the beautiful 12-year-old girl who jumped to her death at the top of that cement silo, and we don't need to lose focus that she is the victim," Judd said.

[ Ben Brasch can be reached at ben.brasch@theledger.com or 863-802-7590. Follow Ben on Twitter @ben_brasch. ]

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